Alaska House Minority Leader Chris Tuck says his caucus is not satisfied with changes to the oil and gas tax credit program as the legislature considers taxes for residents and a draw from the state’s savings.
Representative Tuck says he feels it’s hard to justify asking Alaskans to pay taxes or change the way the annual Permanent Fund dividend is allocated without changes at least on par with what the governor proposed.
Speaker of the House Mike Chenault says his door is always open…
Spkr. Chenault: “I’ve been asking for input for a week, and I haven’t got it from them. That information highway goes both ways. Naturally there’s bills that need to pass, those are being scheduled and those are being worked on and as we get closer to the end of the process hopefully they’ll come and actually want to have some talks about how do we move forward, how do we take care of the needs of Alaskans and how do we try to manage our money.”
Legislative leaders are considering another constitutional budget reserve to help cover state costs in the face of a $3.5 billion budget deficit.
Speaker Chenault says he assumes there will be controversy as the House works to garner the 30 votes needed to allow the CBR draw, four of which have to be minority members.
He says in his meetings with Representative Tuck, there have not been clear requests on how the Minority would like the budget to look.
The legislature’s regular session ends this Sunday, April 17, at midnight.